ISSN 2348-1218 (print) International Journal of Interdisciplinary Research and Innovations ISSN 2348-1226 (online) Vol. 9, Issue 2, pp: (94-100), Month: April - June 2021, Available at: www.researchpublish.com
Enhancing smart farming through egg-incubation technology: A micro-study in lira city, mid-north Uganda 1 1
Alex Oboi, 2David Mwesigwa
MA student, Discipline of Public Administration and Management, Lira University, Uganda
2
Senior lecturer, Discipline of Public Administration and Management, Lira University, Uganda
Abstract: A visit to TAF Agri-Tourism Farm, located in Anyomorem parish, Lira City East Division revealed that an incubator is used for the production of local chicken and is being commercialized. Reportedly domesticated around 5,000 BC in Southeast Asia, chicken is globally kept and as of 2018, with the introduction and use of modern solar-powered, electricity-powered or fuel powered incubators, the number of chickens increased to about 23.7 billion. In sub-Sahara Africa, and Uganda (which had about 1,274 incubators as of 2014), most farmers still hold-on to the traditional reproduction of chicks as opposed to using incubator. The ZFF Thermal Air Hova-Bator was preferred by TAF Agri-Tourism Farm due to its economical and efficient benefits. The outcome of these aspects were found to be major: that this type of incubator which has a temperature and humidity regulator needs to be placed in a dark room without open windows in order to control light; and that it is able to incubate and hatch a maximum of 200 chicks and any one round of hatchery period. In the incubator, eggs are turned frequently between 4-17 days and thereafter locked completely until they are hatched. After hatching, chicks are transferred to the brooder, and later to a growing wing. Upon maturity, excess cockerels are sold-off. The farm management uses internet to advertise or receive payments but make a physical delivery of chicken to its customers. Keywords: Egg incubation, chicken, smart farming, TAF agri-tourism, brooder.
1. INTRODUCTION Millette (2020), noted that a rudimentary incubator used in chicken production has been in existence and practice from about 400 BC when Ancient Egyptians used the cylindrical building or oven that had a fire lit at the bottom from which the eggs were reportedly placed in a woven basket on an inverted cone that was partially covered in ashes. Before the use of an incubator, poultry were reproducing naturally. Perry-Gal (2015) defined an incubator as an apparatus that is used to regulate environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity and turning for successful hatching of the fertile eggs placed in an enclosure. Scientifically, an incubator is a device that aid in keeping eggs warm at a particular temperature range and humidity with a turning mechanism to hatch those eggs (Finer & Holberton, 2002). The first scientific incubator, according to Becker & Gassmann (2006), was a Reaumur‟s incubator which was designed in 1747 and gave the specifications of a well-defined meaning of an incubator: “the art of hatching and rearing domestic birds of all species in all seasons, either by means of the heat of manure or by means of ordinary fire”. Building on this experience, Becker & Gassmann (2006) hinted that a coal lamp was invented in 1879; and that the first commercial machine was made in 1881. Meunier (2000) pointed that in 1922, the innovation into an electrically powered incubator was made in the USA which greatly encouraged the growth of large scale commercial hatcheries. In describing this incubator, Meunier (2000) explained that it was an apparatus used to regulate environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity and turning for successful hatching of the fertilized eggs which were placed in an enclosure for about 21 days. This electrically powered incubator was expected to play the role similar to that of the hen in its natural state, and was programmed to
Page | 94 Research Publish Journals